An
HTML document consists of text, which defines the content of the
document, and tags, which define the structure and appearance of
the document. The structure of an HTML document is simple, too,
consisting of an outer <html> tag enclosing the
document header and body:

<html>
<head>
<title>Barebones HTML Document</title>
</head>
<body>
This illustrates, in a very <i>simp</i>le way,
the basic structure of an HTML document.
</body>
</html>

Each
document has a head and a body,
delimited by the <head> and <body>
tags. The head is where you give your HTML document a title and
where you indicate other parameters the browser may use when displaying
the document. The body is where you put the actual contents of the
HTML document. This includes the text for display and document control
markers (tags) that advise the browser how to display the text.
Tags also reference special-effects files including graphics and
sound, and indicate the hot spots (hyperlinks
and anchors) that link your document to other
documents.